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Effects Of Palmitate On The Expression Of Inflammatory Cytokines In Microglial Cells, Shiyu Ma

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Obesity has become a pandemic health issue for the development of more serious illnesses such as insulin resistance, cardiovascular diseases, and hypertension. Among those pathological conditions, low grade chronic inflammation triggered by saturated fatty acids (SFA) such as palmitate (PA) has been suggested to be the culprit of crimes and various signaling modulators ranging from cellular surface receptors such as toll like receptors (TLRs) and G- protein – coupled receptor 40 (GPR40) to intracellular kinases like mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and protein kinase C (PKC) have been postulated. In this study, mouse BV2 cells were treated with different concentrations of …

Small Hall Effect Thruster With 3d Printed Discharge Channel: Design And Thrust Measurements, Ethan P. Hopping, Wensheng Huang, Kunning G. Xu

PRC-Affiliated Research

Citation: Hopping, E.P.; Huang, W.; Xu, K.G. Small Hall Effect Thruster with 3D Printed Discharge Channel: Design and Thrust Measurements. Aerospace 2021, 8, 227. https:// Abstract: This paper presents the design and performance of the UAH-78AM, a low-power small Hall effect thruster. The goal of this work is to assess the feasibility of using low-cost 3D printing to create functioning Hall thrusters, and study how 3D printing can expand the design space. The thruster features a 3D printed discharge channel with embedded propellant distributor. Multiple materials were tested including ABS, ULTEM, and glazed ceramic. Thrust measurements were obtained at the …

Small Hall Effect Thruster With 3d Printed Discharge Channel: Design And Thrust Measurements, Ethan P. Hopping, Wensheng Huang, Kunning G. Xu

PRC-Affiliated Research

Citation: Hopping, E.P.; Huang, W.; Xu, K.G. Small Hall Effect Thruster with 3D Printed Discharge Channel: Design and Thrust Measurements. Aerospace 2021, 8, 227. https:// Abstract: This paper presents the design and performance of the UAH-78AM, a low-power small Hall effect thruster. The goal of this work is to assess the feasibility of using low-cost 3D printing to create functioning Hall thrusters, and study how 3D printing can expand the design space. The thruster features a 3D printed discharge channel with embedded propellant distributor. Multiple materials were tested including ABS, ULTEM, and glazed ceramic. Thrust measurements were obtained at the …

A Cross-Level Information Transmission Network Forhierarchical Omics Data Integration And Phenotypeprediction From A New Genotype, Di He, Lei Xie

Publications and Research

Motivation: An unsolved fundamental problem in biology is to predict phenotypes from a new genotype under environmental perturbations. The emergence of multiple omics data provides new opportunities but imposes great challenges in the predictive modeling of genotype-phenotype associations. Firstly, the high-dimensionality of genomics data and the lack of coherent labeled data often make the existing supervised learning techniques less successful. Secondly, it is challenging to integrate heterogeneous omics data from different resources. Finally,few works have explicitly modeled the information transmission from DNA to phenotype, which involves multiple intermediate molecular types. Higher-level features (e.g. gene expression) usually have stronger discriminative …

Concentrations Of Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium, Manganese, And Aluminum In The Blood Of Pakistani Children With And Without Autism Spectrum Disorder And Their Associated Factors, Mohammad H Rahbar, Shahnaz H Ibrahim, Syed Iqbal Azam, Manouchehr Hessabi, Fatima Karim, Sori Kim, Jing Zhang, Nasreen Gulzar Ali, Katherine A Loveland

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with early onset in utero or childhood. Environmental exposure to six metals (Pb, Hg, As, Cd, Mn, Al) is believed to be associated with ASD directly or interactively with genes.

METHODS: We enrolled 30 ASD cases, age 2-12 years old, and 30 age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) controls in Karachi, Pakistan. We assessed associations of ASD status with various factors using Conditional Logistic Regression models. We also used General Linear Models to assess possible interaction of blood Mn and Pb concentrations with the three GST genes in relation to ASD …

Variant Allele Fraction Of Genomic Alterations In Circulating Tumor Dna (%Ctdna) Correlates With Suv, Amin Haghighat Jahromi, Matthew Zabel, Ryosuke Okamura, Carl K Hoh, Razelle Kurzrock

Open Access Publications

The relationship between higher variant allele fraction (VAF) of genomic alterations in circulating tumor DNA (%ctDNA), an indicator of poor outcome, and maximum standardized uptake value (SUV

Photoacoustic Imaging, Feature Extraction, And Machine Learning Implementation For Ovarian And Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis, Eghbal Amidi

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Among all cancers related to women’s reproductive systems, ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate. Pelvic examination, transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS), and blood testing for cancer antigen 125 (CA-125), are the conventional screening tools for ovarian cancer, but they offer very low specificity. Other tools, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography (PET), also have limitations in detecting small lesions. In the USA, considering men and women separately, colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of death related to cancer; for men and women combined, it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths. …

Mechanisms For Osteoblast And Osteocyte Initiation And Sustainment Of Bone Formation In Young-Adult And Aged Mice, Taylor Lynn Harris

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The cellular mechanisms for loading-induced bone formation, from osteocyte mechano-sensation to osteoblast-directed bone formation, are not well understood. Elucidating these mechanisms and identifying any processes that are disrupted in aged mice can aide in the development of new anabolic drugs for treating diseases like osteoporosis. This thesis begins by investigating the genes expressed by osteocytes following loading at an early mechanosensitive (4-hr) timepoint, and later at a bone-forming (day 5) timepoint. We demonstrated increases in Ngf and Wnt1 in osteocyte-enriched intracortical bone by laser capture microdissection and microarray analysis. These results were important in demonstrating the presence of Ngf in …

Attachment Of Fibrous Materials In Nature And Surgical Repair, Ethan Daniel Hoppe

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Mother nature is the ultimate problem solver. Often by brute force and necessity for survival, the organism that has the best solution to a problem is the one to proliferate. One of these problems for which nature provides an elegant solution is the attachment of dissimilar materials. This dissertation explores the strengthening and relaxation of interactions between soft and hard materials, typically with one of the two being fibrous in character, with the goal of identifying strategies for improving the surgical reattachment of tendon to bone. The work begins with a study of the plant Harpagonella palmeri, which the dissertation …

Human Ipsc Tissue-Engineered Cartilage For Disease Modeling Of Skeletal Dysplasia-Causing Trpv4 Mutations, Amanda R. Dicks

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Cartilage is essential to joint development and function. However, there is a variety of cartilage diseases, ranging from developmental (e.g., skeletal dysplasias) to degenerative (e.g., arthritis), in which treatments and therapeutics are lacking. For example, specific point mutations in the ion channel transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) prevent proper joint development, leading to mild brachyolmia and severe, neonatally lethal metatropic dysplasia. Tissue-engineered cartilage offers an opportunity to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of these cartilage diseases for the development of treatments. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are an improved cell source option for cartilage tissue engineering given their minimal …

Flexible Electronics For Neurological Electronic Skin With Multiple Sensing Modalities, Haochuan Wan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The evolution of electronic skin (E-skin) technology in the past decade has resulted in a great variety of flexible electronic devices that mimic the physical and chemical sensing properties of skin for applications in advanced robotics, prosthetics, and health monitoring technologies. The further advancement of E-skin technology demands closer imitation of skin receptors' transduction mechanisms, simultaneous detection of multiple information from different sources, and the study of transmission, processing and memory of the signals among the neurons. Motivated by such demands, this thesis focuses on design, fabrication, characterization of novel flexible electronic devices and integration of individual devices to realize …

Concentrations Of Lead, Mercury, Arsenic, Cadmium, Manganese, And Aluminum In The Blood Of Pakistani Children With And Without Autism Spectrum Disorder And Their Associated Factors, Mohammad H. Rahbar, Shahnaz H. Ibrahim, Syed Iqbal Azam, Manouchehr Hessabi, Fatima Karim, Sori Kim, Jing Zhang, Nasreen Gulzar Ali, Katherine A. Loveland

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with early onset in utero or childhood. Environmental exposure to six metals (Pb, Hg, As, Cd, Mn, Al) is believed to be associated with ASD directly or interactively with genes. Objective: To assess the association of ASD among Pakistani children with the six metals and genotype frequencies of three GST genes (GSTP1, GSTM1, GSTT1).
Methods: We enrolled 30 ASD cases, age 2-12 years old, and 30 age- and sex-matched typically developing (TD) controls in Karachi, Pakistan. We assessed associations of ASD status with various factors using …

Towards The Discovery Of Prognostic Biomarkers For Glioblastoma Using Resting-State Functional Connectivity, Andy G. S. Daniel

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Gliomas are highly diffusive, primary brain tumors. The most malignant form, glioblastoma, has a dismal survival rate: 14-17 months following the current standard of care, which consists of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Insights into the molecular, cellular, and microenvironmental components of glioblastoma have revealed a vast array of factors utilized to support its proliferation, infiltration, and resistance to treatment. Recent advancements have also identified diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers that are now being used to guide treatment planning. However, survival has improved only marginally, thus emphasizing the continued need for novel biomarkers and treatment strategies. Given its delicate location in the …

Nanoparticle T Cell Engagers As A Modular Platform For Cancer Immunotherapy, Kinan Alhallak

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Immunotherapy has advanced significantly in recent years due to its promising clinical outcomes in a variety of malignancies and holds great promise in becoming the “cure” for cancer. Cancer immunotherapy is the treatment that stimulates a person’s own immune system to recognize, target, and eliminate cancer cells. As the field progresses with emerging and novel strategies, the ability to manipulate the immune system while mitigating toxicities is the goal for clinical translation. To control for both efficacy and safety, biomaterials have been incorporated into immunotherapies to achieve tissue- and/or cell-specific immunomodulation, overcome immunosuppression, and address tumor microenvironment heterogeneity.T cell-based immunotherapy, …

Machine Learning In Complex Scientific Domains: Hospitalization Records, Drug Interactions, Predictive Modeling And Fairness For Class Imbalanced Data, Arghya Datta

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Machine learning has demonstrated potential in analyzing large, complex datasets and has become ubiquitous across many fields of scientific research. As machine learning is actively deployed in many complex and critical domains, it is essential for machine learning to engage with domain expertise to aid in knowledge discovery as well as address challenges in predictive modeling in complex domains. Domain expertise represents an essential and elaborate collection of knowledge that is often under-utilized when applying machine learning in complex domains. In this dissertation, I have addressed existing challenges regarding knowledge discovery in complex domains via engagement with domain expertise, particularly …

Quantitative Flow Cytometry-Guided Protein Biomarker Characterization For Translational Proteomics And Precision Medicine, Yingye Fang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Angiogenesis, the growth of blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature, is primarily regulated by vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs). Dysregulated angiogenesis is associated with cancers, obesity, and over 70 vascular diseases. Upregulated VEGFR protein expressions in diseased vasculature are promising biomarkers for predicting clinical outcomes, as indicated by non-quantitative immunohistochemical studies in patients with impaired vascularization or tumor angiogenesis. While the quantitative characterization of VEGFRs is critical in identifying biomarkers for anti-angiogenic therapies, VEGFR biomarker development presents two particular challenges: (1) The invasive tissue biopsy needed limits the amount of VEGFR data that can be collected from both normal and …

Shear Wave Propagation Speeds And Estimation Of Mechanical Properties In Soft, Fibrous, Nonlinear Anisotropic Materials, Zuoxian Hou

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The mechanical properties of brain tissue may reflect or influence growth, remodeling, development, aging, and disease. However, brain tissue, especially white matter, is structurally anisotropic and has nonlinear strain-stress relationships, so common methods are not very useful to describe the mechanical properties of brain tissue. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), based on the MRI imaging technique, can be used for measuring tissue mechanical properties non-invasively. Therefore, the mathematical model that describes the relation between wave speed and tissue mechanical properties will essentially influence the accuracy of the prediction. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between shear wave …

A Neuromorphic Machine Learning Framework Based On The Growth Transform Dynamical System, Ahana Gangopadhyay

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

As computation increasingly moves from the cloud to the source of data collection, there is a growing demand for specialized machine learning algorithms that can perform learning and inference at the edge in energy and resource-constrained environments. In this regard, we can take inspiration from small biological systems like insect brains that exhibit high energy-efficiency within a small form-factor, and show superior cognitive performance using fewer, coarser neural operations (action potentials or spikes) than the high-precision floating-point operations used in deep learning platforms. Attempts at bridging this gap using neuromorphic hardware has produced silicon brains that are orders of magnitude …

Long-Term Neural Activity Recorders Using Energy-Based Sensing, Compressive Computation And Data Logging, Darshit Mehta

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Insects are ideal candidates for developing bio-robotic systems owing to their ability to thrive in almost any environment. For example, neurons in their exquisite olfactory sensory systems can be tapped to create a sensing platform for standoff chemical monitoring. However, for enabling such cyborg systems, it is vital that the neural activity of a freely behaving organism can be measured for long periods of time. The current state-of-the-art neural recording techniques are power-intensive and they either need batteries, which make them too bulky for insects, or they have to maintain a continuous telemetry link to an external power source which …

Investigation Of Microdroplet Generation, Morphological Evolution, And Applications Under Quasi-Steady And Dynamic States, Li Shan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Microscale droplets are commonly encountered in the fields of materials processing, thermal fluids, and biology. While these droplets are naturally occurring, recent advances in microfabrication have enabled researchers to harness their enhanced transport characteristics for numerous laboratory and industrial applications from controlled chemical synthesis to inkjet printing and thermal management. Smaller droplets have larger specific surface area and a greater perimeter-to-area ratio when resting on a surface (i.e., sessile), which accelerates processes occurring at droplet surfaces like evaporation, chemical reaction, or combustion. The demand for microdroplets with smaller and more uniform sizes has motivated investigation of how such droplets can …

Community Detection In Complex Networks, Zhenqi Lu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Network science plays a central role in understanding and modeling complex systems in many disciplines, including physics, sociology, biology, computer science, economics, politics, and neuroscience. By studying networks, we can gain a deep understanding of the behavior of the systems they represent. Many networks exhibit community structure, i.e., they have clusters of nodes that are locally densely interconnected. These communities manifest the hierarchical organization of the objects in systems, and detecting communities greatly facilitates the study of the organization and structure of complex systems.

Most existing community-detection methods consider low-order connection patterns, at the level of individual links. But high-order …

Co-Registered Photoacoustic And Ultrasound Tomographic Imaging Of Human Colorectal And Ovarian Cancer: Light Delivery, System Development, And Clinical Study, Guang Yang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Ovarian cancer remains the deadliest of all the gynecological malignancies. Conventional screening tests, including pelvic examination, transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS), and blood testing for cancer antigen 125 (CA-125), lack sufficient specificity for early ovarian cancer diagnosis. Imaging modalities such as computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been used for surgical guidance. However, all of these modalities have limitations in detecting small lesions. Globally, colorectal cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed malignancy and the fourth most common cause of cancer mortality. Accurate staging and post-treatment surveillance of this prevalent disease are critical because treatment …

Understanding And Improving Adult Stem Cells For Cartilage Tissue Engineering, Dakota Katz

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Articular cartilage allows for near frictionless joint movement; however, when damaged the tissue has very little capacity for self-repair. Tissue engineering can be used to both repair damaged articular cartilage and as an in vitro model for joint disease. Commonly used cell sources for tissue engineering are adipose-derived and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ASCs and MSCs) because they can be patient matched, expand rapidly in culture, and have multipotent differentiation potential. However, donor-to-donor variability of differentiation potential can mask the results of in vitro experiments and ASCs and MSCs only retain their multipotency for a limited number of passages. …

Positron Emission Tomography From 1930 To 1990: The Epistemology And Process Of Scientific Instrumentation, Rick Shang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a groundbreaking detection system that, among many other applications, enabled neuroscience researchers to detect and image physiological changes in the brain associated with cognitive operations as subjects perform a task. This technology helped researchers learn to explore the physiological basis of human cognition in new ways and was the immediate forerunner of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a technology that continues to dominate the neurosciences. PET was also the founding invention of a new field of cognitive science: human functional neuroimaging. Indeed, some would say that PET encouraged a particular way of understanding the brain …

Chemical Damage To Mrna And Its Impact On Ribosome Quality-Control And Stress-Response Pathways In Eukaryotic Cells, Liewei Yan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Ribosome often faces defective adducts that disrupt its movement along the mRNA template. These adducts are primarily caused by chemical damage to mRNA and are highly detrimental to the decoding process on the ribosome. Hence, unless dealt with, chemical damage to RNA has been hypothesized to lead to the production of toxic protein products. Even more detrimental is the ability of damaged mRNA to drastically affect ribosome homeostasis through stalling. This in turn would lead to greatly diminished translation capacity of cells. Therefore, the inability of cells to recognize and resolve translational-stalling events is detrimental to proteostasis and could even …

Mechanisms Of Tetracycline Inactivation By Flavin-Dependent Tetracycline Destructases, Chanez Tiffany Valeena Symister

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Antibiotic resistance is on track to become the next global pandemic. As the world grapples to return to normalcy after experiencing the devastating effects of Covid-19, it is evident that a proactive approach to public health crises can mitigate the mortality rate, economic cost, and the adverse effects to the mental wellbeing of the global population. With the rapidly increasing number of multidrug resistant pathogens invading the clinical environment, the problem exists that all existing antibiotic therapies will be obsolete. The ideal solutions to this problem would be to 1) develop new antibiotics that can overcome the current resistance mechanisms, …

Enantioselective Synthesis Of Β-Amino Acid Derivatives Using Amidine-Based And Bifunctional Organocatalysts, Matthew Robert Straub

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Two new enantioselective methodologies have been developed that have important implications for the asymmetric synthesis of β-amino acids and their derivatives. First, chiral amidine-based catalyst (ABC) HBTM-2 catalyzed an asymmetric cyclocondensation between in situ activated fluoroacetic acid and N-sulfonyl aldimines to give α-fluoro-β-lactams in highly enantioenriched form, achieving modest to excellent diastereoselectivities. These reactive lactams can then be quenched with various alcohols and amines to deliver the α-fluoro-β-amino acid derivatives in moderate isolated yields. Secondly, bifunctional double hydrogen bond donor-amine organocatalysts enable the catalytic alcoholysis of various racemic N-carbalkoxy-3-substituted isoxazolidin-5-ones, resulting in their kinetic resolution. The enantioenriched unreacted isoxazolidinone and …

Investigating The Differentiation And Functional Maturation Of Stem Cell-Derived Β Cells, Leonardo Velazco-Cruz

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic and global disease rapidly growing in prevalence. Diabetes can be characterized by the dysfunction or death of the glucose sensing insulin secreting  cell.  cells are located within the islet of Langerhans (islet), a tissue within the pancreas. Human islets are critical for the study and treatment of diabetes. However, they can only be obtained from cadaveric organ donors. These cadaveric islets do not proliferate and can only be maintained in vitro for short periods of time, making their availability rare and fleeting. Stem cell-derived -like cells can be generated in indefinite amounts and …

Linking Neuronal Protein Phosphatase 2a To The Dlk Stress Kinase Signaling Cascade, Margaret Hayne

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Neurons are constantly responding to internal and external cues as they adapt through signaling cascades and transcriptional programs. I have identified a role for the dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK) and the transcriptional program it controls in neuronal inhibition of the protein phosphatase PP2A. PP2A is an essential phosphatase, expressed in all cell types and required for survival. There is a reduction in PP2A activity in Alzheimer’s disease patient brains which is linked to increased phosphorylation of the microtubule associated protein Tau and ultimately cell death. Here, I have demonstrated that PP2A acts to restrain the DLK stress response and …

Type I Interferon Regulation Of Chikungunya Virus Pathogenesis, Marissa Christine Locke

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arthritogenic alphavirus that acutely causes fever as well as severe joint and muscle pain. Chronic musculoskeletal pain persists in a substantial fraction of patients for months to years after the initial infection, yet we still have a poor understanding of the mechanisms responsible for chronic disease. While replicating virus has not been detected in joint-associated tissues of patients with persistent arthritis nor in various animal models at convalescent time points, viral RNA is detected months after acute infection. However, there has been a lack of tools to study the mechanisms of chronic CHIKV disease. To …